accidentally

adverb

ac·​ci·​dent·​al·​ly ˌak-sə-ˈdent-lē  -ˈden-tᵊl-ē 

: in an accidental or unintended manner : by accident

I accidentally deleted the file.

The lock prevents the gate from opening accidentally.

Six lionfish were accidentally released from a home aquarium in Biscayne Bay, Fla., during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

—Alcestis Cooky Oberg

The Olympic test was thrown out after the test lab accidentally destroyed the backup sample … that's required to confirm a positive result.

—Christie Aschwanden

He bumped into her accidentally on purpose. [=he bumped into her intentionally but he tried to make it appear to be an accident]

Examples of accidentally in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The actor has previously been reluctant to be part of the conversation about the scene, which involved his character Timothy Ratliff accidentally exposing himself to his children, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola, and Sarah Catherine Hook. —Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 19 Aug. 2025

While there, the two women accidentally lost Bonet’s pet snake Orpheus inside the Eras Tour headliner’s bathroom, resulting in Swift’s house manager having to take apart the musician’s cabinetry in order to get the reptile out. —Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 18 Aug. 2025

During a soccer game in secondary school, Kamara accidentally fouled his friend, who fell and broke his arm. —Sophia Li, NPR, 17 Aug. 2025

This 2021 fantasy-comedy follows Din (Jimmy Wong), a struggling student who accidentally discovers a cynical wish dragon (Cho). —Emily Blackwood, People.com, 17 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for accidentally

• detrimentally
• fundamentally
• governmentally
• incidentally
• incrementally
• instrumentally
• sentimentally
• temperamentally
• coincidentally
• environmentally
• experimentally
• mentally